His band, once touted as San Francisco's next big thing, had collapsed in a muddle of missed opportunities and bad feelings. A year ago Creeper Lagoon's Sharky Laguana was back in town, scrounging for a musician's worst nightmare -- a job.

He found some odd menial labor, breaking apart CD cases for a dot-com firm that was cataloging recorded music. At one point, he came across a Creeper disc.

"Of course I had to break it apart," he said recently. "That was a real low. "

Not quite as low, though, as the day he was fired. "That was the lowest."

At one point Creeper Lagoon had nothing but promise. Playing smart, forlorn yet infectious pop-rock, the band was chosen as Spin magazine's best new artist for 1998. Its long-awaited 2001 debut for hotshot label DreamWorks made an instant splash at college radio and a few alternative stations and then went . . . nowhere.

The band members, by then miserable in one another's company, broke up while on tour in England. Singer Ian Sefchick, who grew up with Laguana in Cincinnati, was first to leave.

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Laguana said Sefchick is now living in Los Angeles. They recently spoke. "He had a good job, and he was playing music with some people. I wish him nothing but the best."

Laguana, who was the group's founding member, said he didn't take the breakup well. "It hurt a lot. But there aren't many bands that last forever," he said.

That DreamWorks debut was called "Take Back the Universe and Give Me Yesterday." A few months after the split, Laguana realized he didn't need a yesterday; he needed a tomorrow.

He began writing songs again. Then he found an ad on Craig's List for three ex-punk musicians looking for musical partners. The listing spoke of an upright piano, a Treasure Island rehearsal space and some experiments with tape looping. "There was something that reminded me of myself," Laguana said.

Around this time he also befriended Walt Szalva, a small-studio owner in the Sunset District, and the two began tinkering with Laguana's new songs. To the surprise of everyone involved, the new collaborators -- Jason Bassler, Rachel Lastimosa and Miles Tuffli -- soon became the new Creeper Lagoon.

Brooklyn's ironically named Arena Rock Recording Co. recently issued a five- song EP, "Remember the Future." Sweet, somber and low-key, the record features Laguana as lead singer, a role he said he never coveted.

He didn't expect much more reaction than, as he put it, "Ha ha, Sharky's trying to sing." But the reviews have been encouraging.

"Frankly I'm a little shocked, and in a weird way, a little worried," he said. "Now I've got to go perform." The band plays Friday at Bottom of the Hill.

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